Plans for large recycling plant in one of the UK's top places to live and people are furious

Residents and representatives from Mick George at the meeting at Hemingford Abbots Village Hall

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Hemingford Abbots residents are furious about plans to build "Cambridgeshire's largest waste recycling plant" on the village's former golf course.

The golf club and 42-acre course, which closed permanently in March 2015 and is just south of the village off the A14, has been bought by Mick George Ltd, a waste disposal company with recycling sites and quarries across the UK.

In a heated meeting last night (April 12), emotional villagers fired questions and remarks at Mick George and his team during their presentation in Hemingford Abbots village hall.

In the packed room, residents voiced their indignation about the number of lorries that could pass through the village, as well as the noise, dust and "ugliness" of the plant, which one woman called a "blight on the landscape".

Company director Mick George said, if approved, between 50 and 100 trucks would be driving to and from the site each day.

He promised that company vehicles would not be allowed to drive through the village proper. He said: "We do occasionally get a driver who goes the wrong way - they are only human, just like the people in this room.

"But when they do that, they will know about it because we come down on them like a tonne of bricks.

"Should you spot this, tell us, and we will sort it out."

Before the meeting, village resident Riva Elliott said in an email to The News: "The plans are to convert Hemingford Abbots golf course to Cambridgeshire's largest waste recycling plant, run by Mick George, who already has a waste recycling plant in St Ives near the guided busway.

Hemingford Abbots. Picture: David Johnson

"He bought the land recently and placed his herd of alpacas on it for the time being, with plans to park his lorries there overnight.

"Cambridgeshire County Council has deemed it unnecessary to have an Environmental Impact Analysis for the change - but villagers disagree.